Haltime is over for 2020 Nebraska lawmakers

Halftime is over.

The Nebraska legislative session will reconvene on July 20 at 9 a.m. The clock will start with 17 days remaining and hundreds of legislative bills left in the hopper.

The house lights will be on, the seats will be full, some state senators will be wearing masks and entering a recently modified Chamber with Plexiglas safety partitions.

Last March, without a twominute warning, the Legislature entered the first halftime in the history of the Unicameral. Over the course of the four month pause the game playbook changed. Everything changed; our lives, our prospects, the world we live in and our understanding of what the future will look like.

COVID-19 knocked the wind out of our offense line and moved state government into a defensive position. The Nebraska Farm Bureau estimated last month COVID-19 will cost farmers and ranchers $3.7 billion in projected losses if economic conditions don’t improve. Not knowing how the $8+ billion that the Federal government has poured into Nebraska will impact our state revenue picture in future years, leaves us with an unknown revenue picture into the future.

As the senators return to the statehouse, three main contenders are still on the field; LB1106, which would provide $520 million in local property tax relief by lowering valuations and increasing state aid to schools; LB720, which would enact a new business investment tax incentive programs with a projected General Fund reduction of $125 million per year for 15 years, to replace the current Nebraska Advantage Act, which expires at the end of the year, and finally LB1084, which would commit the state to provide $300 million over 10 years in funding to help garner a deal with the feds to build a $2.6 billion center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Most likely none of the Big Three can command the 33 votes required to break loose from the grip of a filibuster. Some senators will argue the three main proposals bills should be joined together to gather support and passed as a package deal.

Currently, I worry about a package deal as I anticipate property tax relief funding would be sidelined or severely diminished in the future if there is a continued economic downturn. If a package deal is passed, funding for LB720 and UNMC would be statutorily guaranteed and future monetary allocations for the property tax credit fund would be left defenseless.

With the results from the 2020 Census and legislative redistricting to follow, it is possible rural senators will lose a seat in the Legislature to growing urban areas. With one less player on the field, the special team representing NE ag producers will be at a greater disadvantage, making property tax relief that much more important yet difficult to achieve and sustain.

If I was the play caller, property tax relief would be funded for both the short and long term with a guaranteed funding stream. The property tax burden, borne disproportionately by farmers and ranchers, would be rebalanced.

If you have any legislative concerns you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact me or my legislative staff. My email address is cfriesen@leg.ne.gov and the office telephone number is 402-471-2630.